Brett Rants

Final Thoughts

A Good Rule Of Thumb
No Apology. No Money. No Action Required.

{Of course, there are times when even I can recognize chaff.}

Sour Grapes
I am Anti-Grant; by which I mainly mean, Artistic Grants. But I'm OK generalizing to the form. First, I have no expectation of ever receiving a Grant. So, whatever money I am donating to The Cause, I'd rather spend on myself. Second (by definition), Grants go against The Capitalistic Ideal, benefiting those who would not otherwise make it. Third, it seems to be a venue of corruption, as all Specialized Agendas must be. Though, all said, I'd take the money. But not believing I'd ever get a Grant, filling out the paperwork seems like a waste of effort.

So, No Sex Based Sporting Events?
Being in favor of across the board equality, differentiation between outcomes is often a sign of corruption. Sure, there is Skill & Merit. But Skill & Merit will rise to the top, even on a level playing field. So, it needs no head start. Of course, I've already gone circular, as a good head start and finishing first go hand in hand. Still, it remains, an uneven playing field is a sure sign of corruption. But how do we measure unevenness? And how do we level the playing field? Easy. By having simple rules. And removing special cases. So, that's really what I mean. Special Cases are Corruption... are Inequality... are Detrimental to the long-term stability of a society. But I don't think very many people care about that anymore.

{Let us not claim to be holier than though... you know, even if I am. But I would be happier basing National Political decisions on the expected outcome in 100 Years rather than the more typical 100 Days... if not, right now.

Is this Long Term Viable?

Or focused on The Short Term Gain?}

The Pointlessness Of Political Debate
Politics is a subject so complicated it has no answer... not a one.

So Sorry
Science is a process that allows for multiple outcomes. There is no right answer. The easy answers have fuzz (experimental error) and the hard questions have no consensus on what is even being asked.

Hubba! Hubba!
The bigger the mountain, the taller the trees.

On The Slide Down
Until you fall, you don't know what it's like.

In case you're wondering, it feels like freedom.

Little Red Readers
Bugsy Wugsy was an Anarchist. He had joined the party. He had gone to the meetings. But Bugsy Wugsy still could not shake the feeling from his tail that something was wrong.

{Bugsy Wugsy, also, happened to be wanted in all 50 States along with The District of Columbia for Crimes Against Capitalism... as well as for eating frozen tofu and pretending it was as tasty as ice cream.}

Just Saying
If you don't know that you're a jerk, you're probably an even bigger jerk.

{Jerk!}

Color Blind
Mr GigglesWorth has been my friend for years... decades, really. And in all that time, I've never thought of him as a Clown. But on being presented with the moniker, he didn't seem to mind. It wasn't so much "Facts Be Facts," as "Hey, Look At Me."

I wonder what that says about me, that I never noticed the similarity before.

"I mean, it's not how I Self Identify. But look at the nose, the hair, the plaid pants, and even my bow tie for gosh golly sakes. It's a pretty common misconception. Besides, you got to admit, you can fit an awful lot of us into one of those Big Top Cars."

No joke about Circuses, Elephants, or Peanuts, then?

"Well, in my experience, most Elephants are pretty darn cool. And the one thing I've learned from watching Mafia Movies is that you don't ever want to go against the family. And that's all I'm going to say about them Circus Folk."

Type A?
I'm not even on The Spectrum.

Snap! Snap! Snap!
The Most Evil Among Us are those who do not recoil from their own evil.

Do You Comprehend?
Incomprehensible: That which takes as long to learn as it does to explain. I'm thinking of a Mathematical Problem whose Solution is no easier to express than the Question. But I believe Life, Wisdom, Morals, Ethics, Music, and Art would all fit the mold. I mean, not always. But sometimes. Essentially, a complex idea which is not compressible, broken apart, or easily explained, but which still has worth. Thus, I am excluding static.

And Then You Die
Things are never as bad as you think they are.

Self Righteous
It can be difficult forgiving another Person for being Human.

My Prayers Have Been Answered
Praying For Death is Praying For Life.

Best Seller?
I'm more like an Un-Ranked Free Giver.

Manic, Anyone?
I am Prone to Fits of Happiness.

But Never Thirteen
I've done The Twelve Steps so many times, I must have walked a mile.

Breathe It In
The most important part of Life is being (just existing) moment-to-moment, listening, feeling, and breathing, as the world does its dance and swirls around.

{Breath In.
Breath Out.

Repeat.

Enjoy the fact that the process has not stopped... whatever the process might be.}

Maths
AI will have happened when Computers start running programs with syntax errors in them: those errors being the functional equivalent of the nonsense statements and paradoxes humans so adore.

RUN(NOT_RUNNABLE)
Humans do it all the time.

I Mean This In The Nicest Possible Way
We don't spend much time staring into each other. It's safe to say we know very little about the other, much less of what the other is capable.

{The is a generalized statement and not focused on any one individual. Though, My Darling will think I am talking about her. At which point, I will be happy to stare into her eyes and see what there is to see for as long as she likes.

Kiss-Kiss, My Darling}

Math > Turing Complete
A Computer chokes on Bad Input, whereas a Mathematician (or at least, a Philosopher) thrives on the that sort of nonsense.

Mid-Life Crisis
There comes a point when Death changes from a distant abstraction into something imminently real.

Everyone Knows It
Ignorance Is Bliss.

My Heart Is Broken
And every word after that leads to anger, tears, and misunderstanding...

It's a perfect koan and perhaps the best piece of poetry I've ever written.

The Real Goodbye
What makes you think I am ever letting you in again?

Life
There is no resolution. The is no closure. There is no meaning.

The Dilemma
I do not know how to positively convey my frustration at my inability to positively convey my frustration.

The Rule Of Law
As a child, I believe I was punished whenever I annoyed an elder to a significant degree merely for the crime of annoying an elder to a significant degree.

{All other rationales were (and remain) mere pretext.}

Facts Be Facts
Almost every social structure in existence has numerous moral prohibitions. But it can often be very difficult for a non-member to enforce those very same restrictions.

Injustice
There has never been action. There will never be action. It is BS.

{Though, to be fair, the times I have come to the aid of another have been few and far between.}

You Make Lemonade
What do you do when life gives you lemons?

And what do you do if you are invested heavily in real estate near Love Canal?

The Hoax Of Civilization
I was raised by other children, only slightly older than myself. Everyone is.

The Curse Of Compound Interest
I'm guessing that if a Cave Person were to have invested a single arrowhead or clay pot back in the day (circa 40,000BC), they'd own the entire world a thousand times over. OK. I just did the math. It only takes 5,000 years to turn a penny into everything.

It Seems So Obvious, Now
The Ten Commandments are a basis of Law. Thou shall have no other Law before me, pretty much says it all. If one reduces a legal system to its fundamentals, what is one left with? That's right. Something like The Ten Commandments.

{And if a Society fails to enforce These Commandments, the real punishment (and/or consequence, if you prefer) is that the Society in question will tend to falter and fail.}

[REDACTED]
Sometimes, that is for the best.

The Emotion Is Real
How much must those Other Realities suck that this is The Reality I chose so often?

Me?
Expect?
Nothing.
Absolutely Nothing.
[More Redactions]

I Thought It Would Be Harder
ten_commandments.replace("God", "The Rule Of Law")

The Ten Commandments are The Backbone for A Rule Of Law. This is what The Law is. This is The Minimum. This is The Maximum. This is It. This is The Rule Of Law.

One shall Honor, Obey, and Hold Above All Others The Rule Of Law, which has Absolute Authority over Tribe, Clan, & Family Convention in matters of Life, Death, Trade, & Marriage.

Truthfully, if there's anything left over, the omission was unintentional.

The System Fails
But now, I bet you are wondering The Penalty if These Rules (please, call them Laws, etched in stone, as it were) are not Heeded... and Obeyed.

{I guess I jumped the gun when I told you that bit earlier.}

The Spoils Of War
i.e. Looting, Raping, & Pillaging
Suzy Slut was a Whore. But ain't that what we're Fighting For?

Good Morning Chair. Glad To See You
To talk to an object is to treat it as a human.

Polytheism is just one step removed from talking to oneself.

Talk to Others → Talk to Self → Talk to Animals → Talk to Rock → Imbue Rock with Life

I'd say it might have worked just as well in the reverse order. But danger imbues meaning and importance much quicker (learn or be dead). And animals can be very dangerous.

{Of course, Rivers & Mountains can be both very dangerous and very important, underscoring their (is it near universal) personification among those who still do such things.}

$100,000.0000
Not quite where the zeros need to be to make the offer tempting. But I appreciate your sense of humor... and gifting me with another bit of content for my site, however misleading or obscure.

Ying of the Yang
Good without Evil fails, just as quickly as Evil becomes pointless without Good.

{I'm sure the reverse is just as true.

Namely, Evil without Good fails, just as quickly as Good becomes pointless without a fair bit of Evil to make life interesting and worth living.}

Commune-ism
Capitalism encourages saving, which is the antithesis of generosity. Thus, capitalism is at odds with family and community, which are held together by widespread and continual sharing: aka Random Acts of Kindness.

Mars Speaks Bluntly
You're either the head of the spear or you get the shaft.

The Bible
God's book about His Creation
and/or
Our book about our creation

The later being interpretable as the story of our minds, how we came to be... and the betterment thereof.

"LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
If you ask me, And God said seems to be An Instruction to the Choir. While And there was works out to be fairly solid Stage Directions, you know, as the perfect counter-punch from the whole of reality in this here Play of Life.

{Preacher man says this.
The Choir responds thusly.
While the stage hand works the lights and props.}

Ancient Navigation
There's a fine and perhaps meaningless line between travelling by the stars and travelling between the stars. Sure, one is terrestrial and the other interstellar. But in both cases the goal is to meet aliens.

Primitive Mind
I'd guess Stone Age folks were much more into the world around them and had a greater awareness and understanding of the Bird & Bees, Rocks & Trees. To the extent they were ignorant of calculus, we are ignorant of their reality.

So, A Heretic
I'm a Star Wars Fan in a Star Trek Universe.

Forty To Life
If your Go Bag ain't Ready To Go, you ain't Going.

Nothing Stays The Same
Eat
Shower
Change Clothes
Grab Go Bag
Leave

It's a simple process of out with the old and in with the new, carrying nothing forward, as completely as possible, as truncated as possible, as quickly as possible.

Return Home The Old.
Leave Home The New.

Dumber Than Dirt
A Stone Age Hunter knows more about Sticks & Stones than you do.

So Let It Be, Amen!
When I talk about what I'd do differently if I had my life to live over, I'm not so much giving advice, as praying.

More Advice
So, don't pray to false gods... just in case the first reason ("I'll Smite Your @$$") wasn't good enough.

Paying It Forward
I go blind. I go internal. I ruminate about lost opportunities. I figure the solution, tell stories, and share my conclusions however egotistical... and the next generation learns from my dreams, aspirations, and what ifs.

{Or not...}

Knowing The Difference Between The Break Room And The Factory Floor
"I think its on account of their being simple minded, slow if you know what I mean, maybe a bit lost in the grand scheme of things. But whatever the reason, rocks just don't seem to laugh at my jokes. So not being a fool, I don't bother telling them any."

Love Your Enemy
Morality is Not Success. Morality is Preferring to Lose rather than Breaking The Rules of The Game.

First This, Then That
Much like the atoms are replaced in my body over time, my mind will replace everything... eventually. That is to say, in a billion years (or perhaps, much sooner), even I won't know my real name... or even, who I was at this moment.